Punk Rock by the Flyers in PUNKROCKPAPERSCISSORS

October 14, 2014

Book collects raw art from the 1980s scene

Before he was one of the comics industry’s top colorists, Lee Loughridge (DEADLY CLASS, The Batman Adventures) was a kid in the 1980s punk rock and hardcore scene, soaking in its unfiltered creative energy and DIY ethos — and collecting the flyers that promoted the shows. Now, many of those flyers have been collected into a book, coming from Image Comics in November: PUNKROCKPAPERSCISSORS, a one-of-a-kind tribute to the punk scene that archives over 600 show flyers from Northeastern U.S. clubs such as the legendary CBGB, City Gardens, The Showplace, The Pipeline, The Pyramid, Wally’s Place, The Ritz, and more.

Reproduced in this 240-page, oversized book are flyers for some of punk rock's most influential important bands, including Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, Agnostic Front, AOD, Fear, GBH, Murphy’s Law, Warzone, Kraut, and hundreds more. Also featured is a section dedicated to Black Flag and an “All Danzig” section, focusing on Samhain, The Misfits, and Danzig.

“I collected punk and hardcore flyers incessantly throughout the 1980s,” said Loughridge. “I got them at punk shows, at school, off of telephone poles, walls, and elders from the scene. For some reason I kept every last one of them.”

Adding to the collection were Loughridge’s friends Danny Sternaimolo, Art Ottimo, Joe Rosso and Dave Schwartzman, who contributed the flyers they collected.

“The bands and the art associated with these flyers completely shaped who I am today. From creating my own art and music, to never letting go of the punk rock ethics from those days — sometimes to a fault!” Loughridge added with a laugh. “This is from the scene for the scene.”

Raw and rough, reproduced in scratchy black-and-white on photocopiers and plastered on walls and windows, these hand-made advertisements represent the raucous world of punk hardcore in the 1980s. And now for the first time, with PUNKROCKPAPERSCISSORS, they're being archived as an important record of an indelible creative movement.

PUNKROCKPAPERSCISSORS will be in comic book stores on November 5 and bookstores on November 18. It is available for pre-order now.